1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording and/or reproduction system for recording in and reproducing from a recording medium such as a tape cassette or the like used with a digital audio tape recorder (DAT) and a digital data storage (DDS).
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with the progress of multiplication and reduction in size and weight of the recording and reproduction equipment such as AV equipment, a computer equipment and the like, a tape cassette for a magnetic tape constituting a compact magnetic recording medium of high recording density such as a digital audio tape cassette (DAT cassette) or the like has been developed. The magnetic tape cassette constituting a cassette for accommodating such a magnetic recording medium has been developed as a magnetic recording medium for the AV equipment. Taking advantage of the high recording density thereof, however, it has come to be used also as an external recording medium for a digital data storage for the computer equipment.
This conventional tape cassette for the digital audio tape (DAT) includes a cassette body for accommodating a magnetic tape and having an enclosing member for opening and closing a required opening. Specifically, the conventional tape cassette is configured as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3A, 3B. FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a tape cassette, FIG. 2 shows the appearance of the tape cassette, and FIGS. 3A, 3B the manner in which the tape cassette is in use and not in use.
In FIGS. 1 to 3A, 3B, reference numeral 1 designates the whole of the tape cassette. A cassette body 2 of this tape cassette 1 is formed in a box shape combining an upper half portion 3 and a lower half portion 4 with screws or by melt-welding. A magnetic tape T is accommodated in this cassette body 2. A bottom portion 4a of the lower half portion 4 constituting this cassette body 2 is formed with a pair of right and left reel shaft insertion holes 5, 5. A pair of reel hubs 6, 6 wound with the magnetic tape T are rotatably accommodated above the reel shaft insertion holes 5, 5. The magnetic tape T wound on the reel hubs 6, 6 is held by upper and lower smooth or sliding sheets 7, 7, disposed on the bottom portion 4a of the lower half portion 4 and led and exposed to the front side of the cassette body 2 through right and left tape guides 8, 8 arranged on both sides of the right and left front sides of the lower half portion 4.
Also, the front portion of the lower half portion 4 is formed with a recessed loading pocket 9 at a portion corresponding to the reverse side of the magnetic tape T exposed to the front side of the cassette body 2, i.e. between the tape guides 8, 8. When the tape cassette 1 is loaded in a magnetic recording and/or reproduction system, a tape loading guide member of the system advances into the pocket 9 and thereby pulls out the magnetic tape T forward of the cassette body 2 (for tape loading).
On the other hand, the upper half portion 3 is formed with a transparent window portion 10, through which the amount of the magnetic tape T wound on the reel hubs 6, 6 can be checked. The forward end portion of the upper half portion 3 has mounted thereon a front lid 11 vertically rotable about side plates 11b, 11b formed at the ends of a main plate 11a for opening or closing the magnetic tape exposure portion on the front side of the cassette body 2. While the tape cassette 1 is out of use, the magnetic tape exposure portion is enclosed between the tape guides 8, 8 on the front side of the cassette body 2 by the front lid 11. Also, when the tape cassette 1 is loaded in the magnetic recording and/or reproduction system, the mechanism in the system rotates and opens upward the front lid 11 thereby to expose the magnetic tape T. With the opening motion of the front lid 11, a lock member 12 for stopping the rotation of the reel hubs 6, 6 is released.
In this tape cassette 1, a slider 13 constituting a member for closing the opening is longitudinally slidably mounted on the lower surface of the bottom surface portion 4a of the lower half portion 4 of the cassette body 2. This slider 13 is formed with reel shaft insertion holes 14, 14 corresponding to the reel shaft insertion holes 5, 5 of the lower half portion 4. The slider 13 is always biased forward by a spring 15. When the tape cassette 1 is not used, the slider 13 is located at the forward closing position thereby to close the reel shaft insertion holes 5, 5 and the pocket 9 on the lower half portion 4 constituting a required opening of the cassette body 2. Also, when the tape cassette 1 is loaded in the magnetic recording and/or reproduction system, the mechanism in the system slides the slider 13 to the rear opening position, whereby the reel shaft insertion holes 14, 14 are matched with the reel shaft insertion holes 5, 5 of the lower half portion 4 thereby to reveal the reel shaft insertion holes 5, 5 and the pocket 9.
In this way, the tape cassette 1 is such that, when not used, the front lid 11 and the slider 13 are in a closing position for the cassette body 2 as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3A, so that the front opening of the cassette body 2, the reel shaft insertion holes 5, 5 and the pocket 9 are closed. Thus the interior of the cassette body 2 is hermetically sealed, so that the magnetic tape T accommodated therein is protected without any dust or the like attached thereto.
Also, the recording and reproduction tape cassette is reduced in size, while at the same time having the functions including anti-erasure means for preventing the erasure of the recorded information and determining the length of the magnetic tape, in addition to the recording/reproduction in and from a recording/reproduction tape such as the magnetic tape. In a recording and reproduction tape cassette such as a digital video tape cassette or the like, for example, an integrated circuit board (hereinafter referred to as the IC board) constituting a storage unit with the connection terminal portion thereof facing a predetermined position of the upper and lower half portions of the cassette is built in the recording and reproduction tape cassette. The contact terminal of this IC board is connected to the external terminal of the information detecting unit included in the magnetic recording and/or reproduction system so that the recorded information of the accommodation tape stored in the IC memory of the IC board can be searched for.
The recording and reproduction tape cassette having an IC board built therein as a storage unit in this way and the IC board are shown in FIGS. 4 to 7A, 7B. FIG. 4 shows the lower half portion of the recording and reproduction tape cassette, FIG. 5 shows the IC board and FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the IC board.
This recording and reproduction tape cassette 20, as shown in FIG. 4, comprises a board mounting unit 22 including a thin, long area, i.e. a gap portion of a predetermined width parallel to the rear surface at a predetermined position such as a corner of the rear side of the rectangular lower half portion of the cassette body. The rear surface of this board mounting unit 22 is formed with a plurality of connection windows 23 so that the connection terminal of the IC board described later faces the rear portion of the tape cassette 20.
Also, a bottom portion 21a of the lower half portion 21 is formed with reel shaft insertion holes 24, 24, and formed with tape guides 25, 25 on the two sides of the front thereof. A recessed loading pocket portion 26 is formed between the tape guides 25, 25.
An IC board 27 configured as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 is built in the board mounting portion 22 of the lower half portion 21. A board portion 27a of the IC board 27 is made of epoxy resin or other engineering plastics (POM, etc.) equivalent to the plastic material of the upper and lower half portions of the cassette body formed of plastics such as ABS resin or the like. An IC chip 28 constituting a storage element is practically mounted on the inner surface of the upper half portion of the board portion 27a of the IC board 27 and covered with a protective layer 27b. At the same time, an output terminal 29 is arranged on the outer surface of the lower half portion.
The IC board 27 having the IC chip 28 configured this way is built in the board mounting portion 22 of the lower half portion 21 of the tape cassette 20 described above, as shown in FIG. 7A, in such a manner that the connection terminal 29 is directed outward and the board 27a is forced from above into engagement with grooves 22a, 22b on the two sides of the board mounting portion 22. Once the IC board is built in the board mounting portion 22 of the lower half portion 21 in this way, as shown in FIG. 7B, the connection terminal 29 comes to face the rear portion through the connection window 23.
With the IC board 27 built in the lower half portion 21 in this way, the upper half portion (not shown) is covered from above and assembled. Specifically, the IC board 27 with the upper and lower ends of the board portion 27a thereof held between the upper and lower half portions is fixedly built in the cassette body so that the connection terminal 29 comes to face the rear surface of the tape cassette 20.
For producing the recording information of the recording and reproduction tape cassette 20 having this configuration, as shown in FIG. 8A, the tape cassette 20 loaded in a magnetic recording and/or reproduction system 30 is inserted and held in a cassette holder 31 as a cassette insertion and holding unit of the system 30. After being slid inward, the tape cassette 20 is moved downward and set in a cassette mounting portion 33 including a drive mechanism 32. Under this condition, the output terminal 29 of the IC board 27 of the tape cassette 20 is brought into contact, through the connection window 23, with a detection external terminal (hereinafter referred to as the information detection terminal) 34 of the information detecting unit included in the cassette mounting portion 33 in the system 30. As a result, the information of the accommodated magnetic tape stored in the storage element 28 of the IC board 27, i.e. the information such as addresses are searched for.
The digital audio tape recorder (DAT recorder) and the digital data storage (DDS) described above, however, have no information detecting unit mounted thereon. Therefore, no IC board is built in the tape cassette used for the DAT recorder or the like. As a result, in searching for an address of the accommodated magnetic tape, for example, the address is written in a part of the magnetic tape. In recording or reproducing data, therefore, a vacant address is searched for, and then with the address of the required data searched for, the data is read or written, thus consuming a considerable length of time for the search.
Also, since the address search area is located at the forward end of the magnetic tape, the magnetic tape is configured to be always rewound after reading the required data. Thus, the head is contacted an increased number of times and easily damaged, thereby shortening the endurance (service life) of the magnetic tape or the like.
In the recording and reproduction tape cassette having the IC board built in and mounted thereon as an information storage unit, the output terminal of the IC board faces the rear surface of the tape cassette and comes into contact with the information detecting terminal included in the cassette mounting portion of the magnetic recording and/or reproduction system for reading the information. For reading the required information from the tape cassette, the tape cassette, after being inserted in the recording and reproduction system, is slid inward and moved further downward, so that the information is read out with the tape cassette mounted on the cassette mounting portion. This series of operations consumes a considerable time for search. Also, for a tape cassette different from the desired one, the operation reverse to the one described above is performed, i.e. the tape cassette is unloaded to exchange with the desired tape cassette. This requires additional labor. With the tape cassette mounted in the cassette mounting portion, the tape is led out, resulting in an increased number of tape reel-out steps thereby leading to the problem of the endurance of the tape being affected and so on.
The present invention has been developed in view of the points described above, and an object thereof is to provide a recording and/or reproduction system for a recording medium in which an IC board constituting a recording unit is built in a digital audio tape cassette (DAT cassette) or the like recording medium accommodating cassette, and by inserting the cassette into the recording and/or reproduction system, the information stored in the IC board can be instantaneously read out thereby making it possible to shorten the time required for searching the information in the recording medium and improving the durability of the recording medium.
In order to achieve the object described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a recording and/or reproduction system for a recording medium, in which a recording medium accommodating cassette containing a recording medium therein is inserted in a predetermined direction in a cassette insertion and holding portion of the recording and/or reproduction system, and after being inserted, moved to and mounted in a cassette mounting position for recording in and/or reproducing from a recording medium, wherein the cassette includes a storage element unit for storing the required information of the recording medium, wherein the output terminal of the storage element unit is exposed on the outer surface of the cassette, wherein an information detecting terminal of the information detecting unit corresponding to the output terminal of the storage element unit on the cassette side is arranged on the inner surface side of the cassette insertion and holding portion, and wherein the information can be read from the storage element unit before the cassette is moved to the cassette mounting position.
In the configuration described above, the output terminal of the storage element unit is exposed on the surface pressed by the pressure spring of the cassette. The information detecting terminal has a required elasticity and the cassette insertion and holding portion is configured to also serve as the pressure spring member.
In the configuration described above, the information detecting terminal is preferably set to the spring pressure of about 50 to 100 g.
Also, in the configuration described above, a connection window corresponding to each information detecting terminal is formed in the cassette, and the storage element unit is fixed by a fixing means on the inner surface side of the cassette so that the output terminal preferably faces the connection window from the inner surface side thereof.
In the configuration described above, the fixing means includes a recess for storing the storage element unit and an engaging protrusion protruded from the peripheral edge portion of the recess, and a connection window is preferably formed in the recess.
Further, in the configuration described above, the cassette includes a slider formed on the lower surface side being sudable in the longitudinal direction for opening and closing the required opening, and a connection window corresponding to the information detecting terminal is formed in the slider, and the storage element unit is fixed on the inner surface by the fixing means so that the output terminal preferably faces the connection window from the inner surface side.
In the configuration described above, the fixing means on the inner surface side of the slider is preferably formed with a recess for accommodating the storage element unit, and an engaging protrusion from the peripheral edge portion of the recess, wherein a connection window corresponding to each information detecting terminal is preferably formed in the recess.
In the recording medium accommodation cassette and the recording and/or reproduction system thereof according to the present invention configured as described above, the recording medium accommodating cassette is inserted in the cassette insertion and holding portion of the recording and reproduction system, so that the information detecting terminal of the information detecting unit of the recording and/or reproduction system is brought into pressure contact with the output terminal of the storage element unit mounted on the cassette. In this way, the search for the information of the accommodated recording medium is carried out before the cassette moves to the cassette mounting position thereby to shorten the search time or the like considerably.
Also, the information detecting terminal can also serve as the pressure spring member, and therefore the number of component parts can be reduced for a reduced cost.
Further, the storage element unit is connected to the information detecting terminal on the upper surface side where pressure is applied by the cassette mounting spring or on the slider side, i.e. the lower surface side of the cassette. In this way, the cassette with the storage element unit and the recording and/or reproduction system thereof can be designed without changing the position of the recording medium accommodating cassette, the member for preventing the erroneous erasure of the recording and/or reproduction system, the member for identifying the type of the recording medium and so on, thereby contributing to an increased design freedom.